“Surrender Dorothy” – Tracing the origins of a famous graffiti prank

"Surrender Dorothy" was painted on a railroad bridge near the Mormon Temple in Washington D.C.

The phrase "Surrender Dorothy", used in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, was drawn in the sky by the Wicked Witch to compel the inhabitants of the Emerald City to give up Dorothy.

"Surrender Dorothy"

Someone obviously thought the local Mormon Church Temple in Washington D.C. bore a resemblance to the architecture of the Emerald City.

The Emerald City

Columnist John Kelly from The Washington Post tried to discover who painted the Dorothy graffiti and was unsuccessful, yet he did discover something else:

…Answer Man can reveal who apparently first publicly linked the Mormon Temple with "The Wizard of Oz," albeit temporarily. Would it surprise you to learn that they were Catholic schoolgirls?

In the fall of 1974, the senior class of Holy Child, a Catholic girls school in Potomac, visited the Mormon Temple before its dedication. To some, the building resembled the Emerald City. "The Wizard of Oz" might have been on their minds. It was going to be the school play that year. Almost immediately, a plan was hatched…